In recognition of November being Native American month, Alma Harper will speak about the history of Carlisle Indian Boarding School at the luncheon of the Friends of the Eufaula Memorial Library. The luncheon will be at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, November 15.

The public is invited to the $6 luncheon to learn about the school that became a model for more than 150 other schools and started to force assimilation and to make Native people more like the people who had taken over their land.

Harper, whose passion is discovering and preserving Native American history, had an ancestor—Alexander McNac—who attended the Pennsylvania school that separated Native American children from their parents and forbade them from speaking their own language.

A retired teacher, she is currently a tutor at the Creek Nation Dormitory in Eufaula and was recently honored by being named Mrs. Heritage 2024 by the Eufaula Indian Journal.

She is president of the Women’s Missionary Society, primary Sunday School teacher, and choir member/ secretary at Sulphur Springs Baptist Church. She is president of both the Collate District Association Ministers’ Wives Conference and the Collate District Singing Convention. She was instrumental in starting a weekly lunch program in the Warrior community, an annual Black History Month Seminar, an annual Dr. Martin L. King community prayer breakfast, and an annual Curtis Eugene Woodfork Turkey Shoot.

Reservations are not needed for the November 15 soup and salad lunch which will be provided by the Friends’ board members.

All attending will have an opportunity to join the Friends ($5 yearly dues) which supports many library programs. Becoming a member can also be accomplished by emailing member. FEML@gmail.com or by calling FEML president Gail Rose at 918770-2440.